2024.05.07
Congratulations to Tingting Wan for receiving funding from
the 2023 Youth Students Basic Research Projects (Ph.D. Students)
Recently, the National Natural Science Foundation of China has determined the 2023 Youth Students Basic Research Projects (Ph.D. Students) funding list, and Lab of Intestinal lmmune and Microbiota was approved 1. Ph.D. student Tingting Wan at class of 2021 is responsible for the approved project Investigate the response pattern of food antigens in small intestine.
Project Leader: Tingting Wan
Ph.D. candidate, class of 2021, USTC
Because of the increasing prevalence of food allergic cases in recent years, while the knowledge of food allergy and food tolerance in the field which focused on dendritic cells and is still limited, we decided to do something. Our previous study pointed out that the MHCII levels of small intestinal epithelial cells upregulated by food antigens can induce tolerance (Cell, 2023), so we’d like to further explore the specific mechanism how small intestinal epithelial cells recognize food antigenic peptides to maintain tolerance. And our ultimate goal is to elucidate the pattern of different antigen-presenting cells in intestine responding to food antigens.
Tingting Wan, a Ph.D. student majors in basic immunology at 2021’s class, University of Science and Technology of China, is supervised by Professor Shu Zhu. During her graduate training stage, she mainly researches in mucosal innate immune recognition and immune tolerance, and currently published papers in Protein & Cell and Cell as first author and co-first author.
2023.10.29-31
Flavellians reunion in the 2023 Cell Research Symposium
2023 Cell Research Symposium was recently held in Tiantai, Zhejiang Province, focusing on the topic of Immunity and Inflammation: Mechanism and Therapeutics. Four Flavellians Dr. Chen Dong, Dr. Hongbo Chi, Dr. Ming Li, and Dr. Shu Zhu shared their research progresses on the topics of inflammation and tumor immunology.
Professor Zhu Shu gave a presentation entitled The Intestinal Immune Responses towards Microbes and Food. He shared the latest progresses of the lab in the innate immune recognition of pathogenic microorganisms, symbiotic microorganisms, and food antigens in the intestine, which advance our understanding on how intestinal immune recognizes the environmental cues, and establish the immunity or tolerance accordingly.
The Flavellians also visited Guoqing temple and Baohua temple in Tiantai, learning buddhist spirituality from a scientist’s point of view.
2023.10.25-28
Innate Immune Group Members Attend 2023 2nd Annual Conference on Cell Death
The 2nd Annual Conference of Cell Death Research Branch was recently held in Xiamen, Fujian, with the theme of Cell Death and Homeostatic Regulation. This meeting brought together many leading scholars to discuss the latest research progresses and frontier technologies in the field of cell death.
Seven members of the innate immune group and Professor Zhu Shu attended the meeting.
Over the years, Chinese scientists have made a series of internationally recognized significant research progresses in the field of cell death, including the regulation mechanism and important biological significance of cell apoptosis, necroptosis, pyroptosis, ferroptosis, etc.
During the meeting, Professor Zhu gave a talk entitled The Intestinal immune responses toward microbes and food, sharing recent progresses of the lab in gut innate immune recognition of pathogenic microorganisms, symbiotic microorganisms, and food antigen. He also showed that how the gut immune system regulates cell death to adapt the environmental stimuli to maintain homeostasis.
The lab member Decai wang asked a couple of nice questions.
The lab members really enjoyed the talks in the symposium, as well as food and environment in Xia’men.
2023.09.25
Congratulations to Zhang Guorong for receiving funding from the 2023 Postdoctoral Innovation Talent Support Program
2023.09.13
The double session ceremony of Zhongyuan Xiehe Life Medical Award with the theme Science Without Boundaries, Collaborative Innovation was held in Beijing. Professor Zhu Shu was honored with the 7th Zhongyuan Xiehe Life Medical Breakthrough Innovation Award.
Art Meets Science: GUT SCIENCE ART Science Popularization Illustration Exhibition 2023
The GUT SCIENCE ART Science Popularization Illustration Exhibition 2023 Tour began at the University of Science and Technology of China on April 22-23, 2023 and has since been launched in hundreds of institutions across China. This has created a new trend of art science popularization, and serves as a prelude to the 19th World GUT Health Day on May 29th.
Illustration art endows USTC Science and Technology Activity Week with new energy and charm
The GUT SCIENCE ART Science Popularization Illustration Exhibition was held as a sub-activity during the annual Science and Technology Week at the University of Science and Technology of China. It was showcased at the life and medicine science popularization display area, providing a comprehensive and cross-disciplinary journey promoting gut health for science enthusiasts, kindergarten children, primary, secondary, and university students from across China.
A teacher from Sino-Canada Concord Kindergarten of Hefei High-tech Zone, remarked, This exhibition presents an excellent combination of science and art. Science itself can often seem esoteric and may attract only a limited audience.However, when merged with art, even a three-year-old child can learn from it. Thus, both the students and I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition hosted by USTC. You see, the children are holding their own drawing boards and copying the illustrations.
Unveiling the Fascinating World of Gut Science Through Storytelling: Showcasing the Charm of Science
This exhibition showcases 72 exquisite illustrations created by more than 30 top illustrators in China over a period of six months, each representing one of the 18 major themes such as Everything is ecology, The Mother River of the Human Body, The First Line of Defense for Intestinal Protection, The Mucous Defense War, The Immune City, and The Beauty of Microorganisms.
Each theme corporates scientific knowledge about gut health into the artwork in a vivid and creative way. Some illustrations use realistic depictions to convey a grand story concept, such as depicting the gut microbiome as a guardian army on the Great Intestinal Wall that constantly defends against foreign invaders, or portraying various immune cells as armored warriors fighting against pathogenic bacteria in Intestinal Safety City. Through these artistic expressions, the latest scientific gut knowledge is presented in a stunning and captivating way, leaving a deep impression on the exhibition's visitors.
Spreading Science through Art: Advocating for Public Awareness of Gut Health
The gut is the body's largest immune organ, also known as the second brain of the body, and is crucial to overall health. Inhabiting the gut is the body's largest microbial community - the gut microbiota - which forms the largest micro-ecosystem in the body, the gut microbiome. The gut microbiota plays an important role in various aspects of the body's energy metabolism, the formation of the immune system, and the regulation of its functions.
To raise public awareness about the importance of gut health and to spread more reliable scientific knowledge, the renowned science popularization organization, the MR GUT Innovation Center, initiated the GUT SCIENCE ART Popularization science illustration exhibition tour in 2023. Professor Zhu Shu is a member of the MR GUT think tank. As the academic institution where a member of the MR GUT think tank works, the University of Science and Technology of China was able to secure this valuable opportunity to host the exhibition.
2023.04.16
We held a colorful team building
2023.01.16-17
The annual meeting of the laboratory was successfully finished
